Start of phase 2 trial in newborn infants in South Africa with VPM1002, a new vaccine developed by an Indo-German co-operation for prevention of tuberculosis

08.07.2015 -- Enrollment of the first infant in a phase 2 clinical trial of a new vaccine to prevent tuberculosis (TB) has successfully started. VPM1002, the most advanced new TB vaccine in clinical development, will help curtail spread of life-threatening TB disease not only in endemic countries, but also in Europe. The vaccine candidate VPM1002 was recently out-licensed to Serum Institute of India Ltd. (SIIL), the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer according to number of doses sold. VPM1002 is developed by SIIL in collaboration with Vakzine Projekt Management GmbH (VPM). Mr. Adar C. Poonawalla, CEO and Executive Director of SIIL emphasizes that “TB still remains a major public health problem and only a new and more effective vaccine can help to restrict the expansion of multidrug-resistant and extremely drug-resistant TB and thus save the lives of millions of people each year. We are pleased with the start of this trial as it represents one more step in our efforts to continuously improve existing vaccines, and to make new, safe, efficacious and cost effective vaccines available to the world, especially for TB. This is also shown in our plans to start large trials with VPM1002 to address the challenges of relapsing TB in adults.”